The team explained the rationale behind the decision, saying that while these clusters were created to fill an exploration niche, the end result was too limited and simple. "With the steadily improving quality of mission content available throughout STO as well as our recent efforts to explore more distant parts of the galaxy, exploration clusters have become something we're reluctant to steer new players towards because they are not up to our current standards," Cryptic posted.

With the reworking of the crafting system, exploration clusters are no longer needed as crafting mat havens, and so they have reached the end of their usefulness in the game. However, the team said that Foundry users can still whip up player missions that use exploration cluster settings.